That brought everything back to Etel. How did he know about Jess? What was it that drew Etel’s attention to her? Had Etel met her? Most importantly: What the hell did he hope to gain by sending her?
Wrath got his supplies and then headed back home. An idea was forming in his mind. He’d keep Jess around until he knew exactly what was going on. He couldn’t rely on his dragon to give him a feel for the situation, so he’d rely on his human side.
All he had to do was get Jess to come home with him. He might have to use telepathy, but he thought she might be willing to go with him. He’d play it by ear.
Playing the nice guy was easy enough. There was a good chance he could charm her. In truth, he already had a soft spot for Jess. That didn’t mean he’d let her get away before he had the answers he needed.
Hurting her wasn’t an option. Unlike his brothers, Wrath knew what it was to love a human woman, his mother. While his younger brother Marcus had some contact with his mother, he was only three when she died giving birth to Antonius. Wrath was the only one who actually remembered what it was like to be held in his mother’s arms.
Sure, when he was young, he’d had his bad moments.
When he was twelve, during the reign of Shar-Kali-Shari in Akkad, he stumbled across girls bathing in the Tigris. Before they could see him, he hid amongst the reeds. He watched in fascination as they bathed their feminine bodies. Then he took a breath, wanting to catch their scent. Instead of clean human females, he scented filthy male bodies.
He scanned the area and less than a hundred yards away, there were Gutian raiders sneaking along the river. He saw his folly then. The young human females were in danger and he’d been spying on them like a creep.
Though he was young, he never went anywhere without his battle axe. Yes, he was a dragon, but even in those days it was safer not to reveal his true nature. His father and brothers trained him relentlessly for just such an occasion. He would redeem himself and protect the girls.
He burst out of the reeds and shouted at the girls to run, sparking screams and squeals and splashing. If the raiders hadn’t known about the girls before, they knew now, and their interest was piqued.
Wrath ran straight for the men, axe in hand. He was tall for his age, as tall as the men, but he had baby smooth skin and not a shred of facial hair. It was twenty-three battle hardened men against one boy.
They laughed.
But Wrath was no boy, not like the ones they’d seen before. He summoned his magic. He was young so he didn’t have much, but it would have to work. Breathing fire would draw too much attention, but as a firedrake he could control heat. At the time, he could only use magic on two people at once. So, that’s what he did. He boiled the blood of two men at a time as he performed the dance he practiced daily, swinging his blade, moving his feet, ducking, blocking, slicing, killing.
The blood of his enemies washed away the sin of watching the girls. He finally took to heart the words of Alal, “We have to protect the humans when we can, Ezzu. The strong among them will crush the weak. There are people who need you as their champion.”
The memory of his mother and of the feeling he got from protecting the girls kept him from being as cruel to women as his father. Women were physically weaker and human men had been taking advantage of that from the beginning. Wrath couldn’t be like them. He wouldn’t.
At the same time, however, Wrath was devoted to his people. The war was long over, but distrust remained. Wrath needed to know what Etel was planning. He wouldn’t hurt Jess, but he had no problem with using her.
~
Though she hadn’t been working at the bistro very long, Jess was becoming well acquainted with some of the regulars: a senior from Patrick Henry High School who would come in for lunch and order a double shot of espresso and a small sandwich, the assistant manager at the grocery store who ordered sweet drinks on bad days and black coffee on good days, and the surly middle-aged man named Kevin who complained about the coffee but always ordered two to go.
Most of them were fine, even Kevin.
Only one customer really bothered her. Dubbed Leering Larry by the other members of the bistro’s staff, he seemed incapable of looking at a woman unless he was staring at her chest. Even the elderly were not immune to his leering gaze. The worst she’d seen him do was stare at a pair of breasts, sniff the air, and then lick his lips. It was like he was an animal preparing to dine on human flesh.
Jess was distracted, thinking about the sizable bulge that pressed against her as she sat on Wrath’s lap. It felt big, very big. But maybe that was because it was covered in layers of fabric. It couldn’t actually be that big, could it?
She didn’t notice Leering Larry until he was at the counter, already leering.
“What can I get for you today?” Jess asked.
Larry sniffed the air and then scrunched up his face. For the first time ever, he looked Jess in the eyes. “You’re with...you been...uh...I’m fine, thanks,” he stammered.
Then he hustled out of the bistro and into the parking lot where he got into his old Ford F-150.
Weird.
Not that she minded that he left. Whatever smell he picked up that made him leave was for the better. She put
